ANDERSON — Since the 1999 fish kill that impacted the White River in Anderson, the city has spent $83 million to remove untreated sewage from its waters.
Following the fish kill that was attributed to the former Guide Corporation, the city reached a consent agreement with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate combined sewer overflows.
CSOs occur when older, combined sewer systems — which transport both sewage and stormwater in a single pipe — become overwhelmed by heavy rain or melting snow. The result is a mix of untreated human waste, industrial wastewater, and storm water discharging directly into local waterways.
Since prior to the 1999 fish kill, the city of Anderson has eliminated 15 of the 28 combined sewer overflows at a cost of $82.8 million.
The city will eliminate two additional overflows by 2027 that are located along the White River, east of Edgewater Park.
Assistant city attorney Tim Lanane said under the terms of the consent decree, the city was to eliminate all the CSOs by 2029.
“We’re hoping to get an extension of 15 to 20 years to eliminate the remaining CSOs,” he said. “They are expensive to remove. The estimated cost is $84 million.
“These are all major projects,” Lanane said. “The city has a long-term control plan. We have closed a fair number already.”
He said one problem to be accounted for will be a method for handling additional storm water going into the wastewater treatment plant in the future.
Lanane said the federal government has been requiring communities to eliminate CSOs for several decades following adoption of the federal Clean Water Act.
“We as a community want to eliminate the CSOs,” he said. “We want to protect the environment and water quality.”
Anderson intends to eliminate six more CSOs by 2049.
Chris Kaufman with the consulting firm of Egis said the city has already eliminated one CSO along the White River near Edgewater Park. Work to eliminate a second is expected to start later this year.
Kaufman said when the work is completed, it will eliminate the discharge of 22 million gallons of storm water and raw sewage into the White River.
The Anderson City Council last week approved a rate increase of 18% for the Anderson Water Pollution Control Department that will be used to fund the long-term control plan.
The last rate increase was in 2010. The most recent increase is expected to raise residential customers’ monthly bills by $7. The city intends to issue $12 million in bonds in 2026 and 2027 to pay $8.7 million for the control plan and $3.3 million for other equipment needed by the utility.
Anderson Mayor Thomas Broderick Jr. said the long-term control plan will be implemented over 20 years.
“It will have cost the city $200 million to comply with the consent decree,” he said.
Broderick said another adjustment to the rates is expected in 2030 to meet the terms of the consent decree.
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